Stephanie Powell lives in London. She grew up in Australia. She writes from her attic at home and takes photos. Her collection ‘Bone’ was published by Halas Press in July 2021. She has recently been accepted for publication in Ambit Magazine and longlisted for the Poet of the Year 2021 competition, run by the Canterbury Festival.

 

Of the poem featured here, Stephanie states:

 

‘This summer is not a complete waste, has two ways you can look at it. It can be about the simple ecstasy of having a free afternoon to ride about on a bike. To properly take in your surroundings. To find a patch of earth to lay and look at the sky for a while. I strove to express this feeling in the poem. Alternatively, and maybe it’s in the title of the work, you could look at it as a post-pandemic poem. A kind of self-soothing call to rediscover ecstasy in day-to-day life. The final couple of lines are about fireworks, something that is brief, joyful, and always makes you pause to watch.’